Undeniably guilty of a heinous crime, convicted killer Cindy Liggett has been sitting on Death Row in the state penitentiary for 12 years--waiting--for her much delayed date with the executioner. Now, after numerous stays from the Governor, and false hopes for her future, Cindy is finally ready to face the inevitable. But as the clock ticks on, and her days dwindle down, the one thing she is not prepared for is the unexpected relationship she develops with Rick Hayes, a novice bureaucrat from the Clemency Board who becomes convinced that misjudgments in Cindy's original defense trial led to an unjust sentence. A neophyte attorney assigned to merely review the Liggett case, Rick determines that while she definitely deserves to be in prison, the extenuating circumstances of her crime do not dictate that she be put to death. With no time to spare, and against seemingly insurmountable political odds, Rick devotes himself to the cause of saving Cindy's life with a commuted sentence.